If you’ve been researching digital marketing, then you’ve probably heard the term content marketing by now. Simply put, content marketing is a popular search engine optimization strategy that’s considered an essential part of SEO services. Content marketing refers to the creation of original online content, which is then used to support your SEO campaign and branding efforts.

To provide the local SEO Phoenix, Arizona business owners can trust, you have to first educate clients about SEO strategies. There are a lot of misconceptions about the goals of content marketing in particular, which is an important but misunderstood part of SEO for businesses.

How Does Content Marketing Work?

We’ve already discussed the importance of local SEO strategies like keyword research and social media marketing, but why is content marketing so important for business owners to understand?

SEO used to be so simple, but it grows more complicated every time Google updates its search algorithm. Today, Google heavily favors websites with original content, especially websites that are regularly updated with new content. In fact, even changing one or two words of copy on your homepage has been shown to have a positive impact on your search rankings. Content is any piece of original information you publish online, like videos and infographics. This blog post is just one of the 27 million pieces of content that will be published today.

Our Arizona SEO firm has found that “thin websites” with little to no content struggle to boost their rankings on search engines. Often, when we start a new campaign, whether it’s a national SEO branding campaign or one of our local SEO Phoenix packages, content creation is one of the first services we provide, most often in the form of a blog.

Occasionally, business owners will say they don’t need or want a blog, or they’ll delete their blog if it isn’t pulling in new leads. While company blogs will often generate leads, that isn’t the primary goal. Our SEO firm uses the content on your blog to support the keywords you want to rank on, creating powerful signals for search engines like Google.

SEO Phoenix Can Trust: Content Marketing is a ‘Whitehat’ SEO Service

If you want to pursue an SEO strategy that won’t get you in trouble with the search engine police, then content marketing is a proven place to start. Estimates vary, but today, anywhere from 75-92% of marketers are using content marketing for their clients.Not only is content marketing essential if you want to boost your search rankings, but it’s the most effective way to support link building efforts.

In addition to content, the number of links to your website is one of the most important ranking factors. If you want to get to Page One, then you’ll need links. By creating original content on your blog (and by including important keywords in that content), you can create more link-generating pages.

All things being equal, business websites without content will under perform those that regularly post new content.